The health consciousness of society has given rise to the introduction and use of various types of exercise equipment. Such equipment spans a broad spectrum from individual implements and devices for home and office use, to the more complex machines employed in gyms, health clubs, and the like. Presently, such machines typically employ a combination of cams, gears, and levers, against which the user urges his physical forces to exercise and extend his muscles. While the prior art has been quite satisfactory for the purpose of exercising most muscles, it is known that the present exercise machines do not allow for adequate stretch and flexure of the abdominal area. Indeed, the prior art does not provide an effective "work out" for the abdomen and lower back. Proper strengthening, tone, and flexibility of these areas require both rotation and bending to greater degrees than previously attained. Indeed, the prior art tends to restrict the development of such flexibility by inhibiting rotation and bending while exercising these areas of the body, rather than encouraging it. Basically, the prior art exercises the abdomen and lower back by simply allowing the user to exert force in a very limited range of body flexure against a mechanism of pulleys, cams and levers. The limited degree of flexibility afforded the user of such devices does not provide the degree of flexibility necessary to attain proper exercising of the lower back and abdomen.
There is a need in the art for an exercise machine which provides great latitude in bending, flexing, and rotating at the abdomen and lower back. There is further a need for suspending the user and allowing him to exercise and flex his abdominal and lower back muscles through a broad range of movements, substantially unrestricted by the machine itself.